


An interesting night of Poker

by vmeemo



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fluff, Gen, Macro/Micro, Poker, Shrinking, Size Difference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24629641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vmeemo/pseuds/vmeemo
Summary: Due to forgetful planning, Eight and Three were bored at the normally lively house of Agent Four.But when Four sets up a Poker game for them to play, as well as a machine that sorts and deals cards, Eight's seemingly regular Poker game suddenly gets a lot more interesting...
Kudos: 13





	An interesting night of Poker

**Author's Note:**

> Another day, another story that seems to take up all the time and inspiration I could be using for my other projects. Either way, I wish you all a good day, and hope you enjoy this story!

Agent Eight was bored.

Which is a surprise considering she was at Four’s place at the moment, along with Three. And Four knows how to entertain people.

However, despite Four inviting them over, Four didn’t exactly make a plan for what to do when they both came over. Leading to Four currently finding something for the three of them to do to not be as bored.

Looking over to Three on the other end of the couch, who’s on her phone, playing games on it to kill the time. Eight, with nothing else to do, pulled out her phone and see what she could do on it. Before she could however, Eight hears a sound coming from near the kitchen. Looking over the couch, she sees Four putting down a strange machine on top of the table.

Seeing what Four just put down, Eight gets up from the couch and makes her way towards Four, who’s setting the machine up.

Four looks at Eight with a smile on her face, “I found something for us to do now! Give me like a minute or so and we’ll get started. So just sit tight til then. Though then again,” Four’s face turns sheepish, “that’s kinda what you two have been doing since you got here.”

“Anyways, this will be done soon. Like I said, give a minute and I’ll call you and Three over. Alright?”

Not really having much options, Eight gives a nod and makes her way back to the couch. When she gets there, she notices Three looking at her. Judging by her face, she doesn’t know what’s going on. Which isn’t too out of place, especially since she tuned out everything around her in boredom.

Eight figures to let Three know what’s going on.

“Apparently Four found something that we’re gonna use. She just has to take a minute to set it all up.”

Three nods slowly in acknowledgement, looks at her phone, and puts it on the armrest of the couch. Before Three and Eight could do anything else, Four walks in front of them, hands clapped together, and a smile back on her face.

“Alright you two, everything’s all set up now. Come over to the table and I’ll talk about what we’re doing tonight.”

And like that, Four leaves the two. Seeing how there wasn’t much else to do, Eight heads back to the table where Four is, with Three getting up and following after her. Eight sees the strange machine from earlier now with something inside it. From the looks of it, it looks like a pack of cards. Looking over to Four for answers, she waves her hand over to a chair. Eight takes her seat there, with Three at one end, and Four sitting down at the other.

“Now then,” Four says, “I know I didn’t exactly make a plan for when you both came over. I’m a terrible host in that regard and I’m sorry. But, I managed to find this little machine and brought it up. I bought it awhile back but ended up forgetting about it. It’s supposed to be both a card shuffler and a dealer.”

Four looks at both Eight and Three with a smirk on her face, “So I ask this: How good are you two at Poker?”

The two agents look at each other, then at Four. Three gives a smile of her own, “What are the stakes? Mostly just a practice game to start with, or are we going all out?”

“Well,” Four responds, “I’m just gonna let the machine decide. Apparently there’s a special setting on here that I wanna try out. I have no idea what it is or what it does, but that’s what I want to do. Is that alright with you two?”

Three lets out a chuckle, “Well I’m down with that. It might be interesting what this thing might come up with.” She looks over to Eight, “That fine with you?”

Interested in how this could go, Eight nods as well. “I am fine with this. It has been awhile since I last played Poker anyhow.”

Four gives a look of surprise, “Wait, Eight you’ve played before? You know what, never mind. I’m just gonna see if you’re bluffing or not by playing this game.”

With everyone in agreement, the three agents sit down on their chairs at their ends of the table. Four turns on the machine, it whirls for a bit and starts dispensing cards to each person until Eight could count five in her hand and five for the others. Slides came out for the sides, showing a number to Eight.

‘200… Must be the amount of points I have.’

“Looks like its a first to zero wins.” Three speaks, “ Or loses, either or. Either way, I’m gonna beat all of you.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Eight ignores the two Inklings and looks at what her hand looks like right now. And it’s looking like a decent hand. A single pair, but its aces. Unless someone were to get something higher, she should be fine. But, much like her games with Pearl and Marina, things don’t always end up happening like they want you to.

With everyone seemingly set with their cards, the moment of truth and reveal…

A groan from Four and a small ‘yes’ from Three is heard over the table. Eight sees the cards that they had. Three’s hand has a two pair, with two threes and sevens, while Four’s just has a single 6. Four has lost this hand

As Three was quietly celebrating her victory, Eight notices something… Off with Four. For whatever reason, it is almost like she’s… smaller slightly? Eight shakes the thought from her head. People can’t shrink. Especially for no reason. It’s impossible. Eight focuses her attention back onto the dealer machine, which is giving everyone’s fifth card. Looking at her hand, she only has a single king. Not the best hand. She might be able to fake having a good hand. Looking at the two Inklings, she can tell that Four may have a decent hand, judging by her expression. Three however, is good at hiding her emotions. Won’t be able to tell very easily. With no one again folding, they all reveal their cards.

Only to prove Eight right when it shows that she in fact had the lowest hand. She sees the number on the slide go down by twenty points and she felt a small tingle. Eight was weirded out by this, but disregards it for now. The cards are once again in her hand. At least it’s something good this time, two pairs of an 8 and 7. This hand is better than the last one that’s for sure.

Only for Eight to be floored once everyone shows their cards, Three having a flush and Four having two pairs as well, but the numbers are higher then hers. Her number decreases once again and that tingle from earlier comes back. Now Eight is wondering what exactly is this feeling. Before she could ponder this any further, she sees Three leave the table.

“I’m just gonna go grab a drink, that fine with you?”

“Oh sure. Can you grab me a glass as well while you’re up there?”

Three lets out a hum as she heads to the kitchen to grab drinks for the table. It wasn’t before long before Eight hears Three grumbling in the kitchen.

“Eight, can you come over here for a minute?” Three calls, “I need your height, the glasses are too far up for whatever reason.”

“I’ll be over be there in a second.” Eight gets off from the chair and makes her way to the kitchen. When she gets there, she sees Three standing by the cupboard.

“Ok you know where the glasses are, so I’m just gonna get the…” Three’s voice trails off as she turns to face Eight. “…Drinks.”

At first, Eight doesn’t know why Three paused on her words like she did. Until she came closer to her. Or rather, shoulder height of her. That was when Eight knew something was _very_ wrong.

“What. The hell. Is this?” Three says with a wide-eyed expression. “How- How are you _shorter_ then me now? That’s like…” Three frowns as she goes into thought, measuring herself compared to the now shorter agent, “Almost a full foot shorter then me now.”

Eight couldn’t believe it either. Somehow, she has shrunken down a full _foot_ in one night. And so far, there’s only one cause that she can think of.

“It was the machine.”

“What?”

Eight looks up to Three, “That machine that Four brought up earlier. That’s the cause of my newfound stature.”

“Well, how do you figure that?”

Eight looks towards the area where the game is being held, “Because earlier I swear I saw something strange happen to her, but I disregarded it because that thought was ridiculous. Should’ve said something sooner.”

Three shakes her head, “Eight, there were zero ways you would’ve been able to see, much less know this would happen. Don’t beat yourself down about it. Now that we know the source, we can reverse it.”

Eight wanted to argue against that, but knew that Three was right. There were better things to prioritize right now. Like trying to reverse her current condition. With a new goal between the two agents, they head back over back to the Poker table where Four was still sitting at.

“Oh nice, you two are back. What did you end up get-” Four stops as she sees how much shorter Eight is compared to Three. “What happened? How is Eight so short now?”

Three takes a step forward, “We think it might have to do with that thing on the table.” Three says, pointing over to the machine. “If you don’t believe us, then stand beside me. Then you’ll see proof.”

Four has a look of doubt on her face, but once she gets up and stands beside Three, her face goes from doubt to surprise, to concern.

“This is just… Crazy. How this little machine is just able to do _this_.”

The smaller agents face shifts, “I’m gonna go look around where I found that thing. See if I missed the instructions somehow. Stay here for now, and don’t play anymore games. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Four goes, leaving the two agents behind. With nothing else they can do at as of this moment, the two decide to wait until Four gets back. Eight looks at the machine and looks at the numbered slides.

“Three, take a look at this.”

Three goes to where Eight is, “You notice something?”

Letting out a hum, Eight points to the numbered slides, “There are different numbers for each side. Mine is 160, yours is 183, and Four’s is 158. I think these are supposed to mean our heights at the current moment. And if my other guess is correct, it might be in centimetres as well.”

“So you’re thinking that whenever someone loses, our height goes down as the numbers do? As for your other guess, it makes sense. Better to count down from a whole number then say, converting 6′2 or whatever.”

Eight nods. It’s the only thing that makes sense given what she knows at the moment. “We shouldn’t touch it though. Not until Four gets back at least.”

The inkling lets out a huff, “Well don’t wanna make this even worse somehow. I just hope she can find something that can help us. But finding out that the numbers are equal to our heights and that it’s in centimetres is already more then what we knew beforehand.”

Before Three could say anymore, Four comes back over, now with something in her hand.

Eight looks towards the inkling, “Did you find something?”

Four nods, “I found the instructions. Read them a little bit on my here as well.”

“We found out something as well.” Eight says” Three and I put together that the numbers on the slides indicates our height throughout the game. So we think that every time you lose, the number goes down on the slide as well as the unit of measurement it is in, that being centimetres.”

Four cups her chin, “And when that goes down, so does our height. That lines up with what the instructions say at least as does it being calculated in centimetres.”

“What else did you find?” asks Three.

“To put it simply, the machine is designed to bring a bit more spice to a card game by shrinking the losing person. Like you said, every time someone loses a hand, they shrink a bit. Bright side, there is a hard limit to how far it can go.”

“And what would that limit be?”

Four looks towards the dealer machine, “Its default setting is 10% of our maximum heights, though it can go down to 5% if one wants to. So we won’t shrink down to nothing or anything. So that’s good.”

Four continues, “Another thing I found was that because I didn’t set that part up, we will be back to normal size about five minutes after the game is done. Until then, we’re more or less like this for now.”

With this new information coming to light, Eight knew there weren’t a lot of options. It was either stay like this, or finish the game. But, she did want to ask something that piqued her interest.

“Four, when you said ‘didn’t set that part up’ does that imply that we would be shrunken down for a longer period of time? And for how long?”

Eight can see Three giving her a face that’s a mixture of confusion and concern but doesn’t say anything, “Well, from what it says, the length is actually decently long. Outside of the five minute one, we have one that lasts about an hour for the first notch up, a few for the next, and ‘until morning’ for the last one. So the time is pretty long depending on what you set up for.”

Eight goes into thought. With everything she just learned… It looks like there’s only one option that they can do.

“I say we continue playing.”

Four’s brows shot up, and Three is stuttering beside her. Before Three could form a response, Eight cuts her off, “We learned that as long as we play, we get smaller each time one of us loses. We also learned that because Four didn’t set it up all the way, it’s at the most default of settings. Meaning that once we’re done, we go back to normal in five minutes. So unless there’s a hard reset option, our only option right now is to keep playing until one of us reaches the 10% point.” Eight looks over to the two Inklings, “So, I say we keep going. Then we can put it away, and never bring it out again. Is that alright with you two, we can agree to that?”

The other agents look at each other, then Four looks back at Eight, “Well considering its either we stay like this, or finish the game, there aren’t many options we can really take. So let’s keep going I guess.”

With reluctant agreements from Three, the three agents take their places back at the table, the numbers showing each of their heights staring back at them. The machine whirs, and dispenses five more cards for each of them.

Eight looks down at her hand–a pair of 4s–and hopes that she made the right choice. Because now the three of them are in the card game version of the prisoner’s dilemma: everyone _needs_ to finish the game, but nobody wants to be shrunken down either. Even though Eight knows that they’ll be back to normal afterwards, the thought of everything getting bigger and bigger around her makes her uneasy.

Eight puts her cards down and sees that she has lost the hand once again. The number on her slide goes down from 160 cm down to 140 cm. The next set of cards gets dispensed, and Eight realizes just how big the cards are getting. Her hand at the very least is good–a two pair of ace and queen–so she wouldn’t be next at the very least.

The next showing of cards happens, and it seems that Three has lost her first hand. A grimace is seen on her face, and Eight sees Three get smaller. Compared to herself though, Eight can wager that Three is still taller then her. Four let’s out a chuckle, “Looks like Three joins the ‘I’ve been shrunken by card game’ brigade now. How does it feel?”

Three looks down at herself, “It feels weird. Not a bad kind of weird, but just. Weird. Even though it's only been one loss, I’m starting feel the weight of it you know?”

Despite the vagueness of Three’s words, Eight understands her meaning. Being made shorter and shorter and being only to just take it weighs on the mind. It may only be 10%, but there’s that fear of ‘what if something goes wrong?’ She’s not even sure if winning is a victory considering the circumstances. Regardless of what she thinks, the game has to end one way or another. And if she can at least still have _some_ height on herself, then that’s a victory in her mind.

The machine throws another set of cards at her. This is gonna be a _long_ game.

———

Many hands later, the end of the game is inching closer. Eight looks over to her number, which reads 100 cm. They agreed after Four got shrunk again that they should say what the number says on their slide, so that they have an idea of when the game could end. Three’s read 37 cm, and Four’s slide read 70 cm. The machine dispenses what might be the last set of cards for the game. For Four and Eight, hold them was difficult, but doable. For Three however…

Eight looks over to where Three was currently at. Cards face down in front of her, and Three sitting cross-legged on top of the table. Eight and Four underestimated how small you could really get, so once it became clear that Three couldn’t even stand on the chair to see anymore, they had to put the game on hold so that they could get their friend onto the table in order to keep playing. In an odd way, it was kinda adorable.

Eight takes a look at her cards and has to hold herself back and not give herself away. It is a straight flush, the highest possible hand using a standard deck. Queen, Jack, 10, 9, and 8 of spades are the cards she’s looking at. There was no feasible way the others would be able to beat her hand. Now the problem lies in the other two. If Three wins second, the game goes on. If Four wins, the game is over. It all boils down to what cards the others have.

Mean as it was, she hopes Three loses.

Once it was time, they put down their cards…

And Three was the last one, with high card. Four had a three of a kind. Meaning that the game was over. And Three would shrink down.

The two ‘winners’ watch as Three shrinks down even more. By the time she’s done, to say Three is small is not cutting it anymore. She is _tiny_. Eight goes over to Three’s side of the table to pick her up. She notices the number on the slide: 18 cm. That’s roughly 7 inches tall if her math is right. She can’t even imagine how tall she must look to her. Even as Eight puts her hands down to let Three on, Eight is hesitant. To be that small, nearly everything might be a danger to you. Even your own friends.

Once Three is on, and gives her a thumbs up letting Eight know she’s secure, Eight makes her way to the couch. She’s sees Four already on it, but she’s reading the now enlarged (to Four at least) instruction manual as well. Curious, Eight figures to ask.

“Read anything interesting in there?”

Keeping her eyes on the manual, Four answers, “Just seeing if I missed any other options that I missed. Turns out, there was at least one more option.”

“What was it?”

Four looks up from the instructions, slightly blue in the face, “There’s apparently an option for clothes. As in, you shrink, but your clothes stay the same. Meaning that you shrink out of your clothes as the game goes on.”

Eight feels her face heating up. Why was _that_ an option? Eight looks down at Three, who’s face is also blushing blue. Clearing her head of… _that_ , Eight puts Three on the armrest of the couch, and takes her seat beside her. Which further emphasizes just how small she is compared to her. At the very least, she doesn’t have to wait too long.

After five long minutes, Eight feels the tingle that she was familiar with during the game, and sees everything become smaller until she stops at her old height. Looking over to Three–who’s about a foot and a half now–lean over to where Eight was. Seeing what she wanted, Eight moves to the side to give Three some room. After some time, Three is back at normal height again. Though Three seems to be in thought.

“What’s on your mind Three?” Eight asks.

“…Promise me you won’t criticize?”

Eight nods and Three breaths in and then out, “Is… Is it wrong that I actually wanna do that again sometime?”

Eight was surprised to hear this, especially from Three so she gestures her to continue.

“Well, it's just that the instructions were right: It _did_ spice up our evening. And yeah, we did panic about it, who wouldn’t? You get smaller every time you lose a hand and until we took the time to get information, we thought this would be long lasting. But it wasn’t. Despite the circumstances, I was having fun playing. Especially with you two.”

“That’s why I wanna ask if we can scrap that plan of getting rid of it, and save it for special occasions. Because yeah it was fun to do, and I want to do it again sometime. If you don’t want to though, I understand.”

Eight thinks about what was just said. Because yeah, she has a point: It was fun. It was fun and that despite the initial scare, she settled down and had fun after awhile. The fact that there were settings to make it last not that long helped as well, and suddenly Eight finds herself _agreeing_ with Three.

“I mean… I admit, I had fun as well. Sure it was scary at first, but then we relaxed and had fun. We should save it for occasions like these.” Eight looks towards Four, “Is this alright with you, do we keep to what we agreed on and throw it out, or do we keep it and only bring it out once in awhile?”

Four puts down the paper and faces Eight and Three. Though there is a small smile on her face now. “You know, I thought I was crazy for wanting to keep that thing after the troubles and scares it caused us. I would’ve been fine getting rid of it. Now though, I see potential. Potential to have some fun with this. Mess with the other settings and what not. Hell, I want to invite everybody over just to see what might happen and see how they react.”

“So yes. We are keeping this thing.”

Eight couldn’t help but smile to herself. Somehow, the three of them managed to make a bad situation turn good, and had fun doing it as well.

‘I guess that’s how we agents are. Finding the good out of a bad situation, no matter what it is. Or how unconventional it may be.’

Before Eight could do anything else, she sees Four rise up from the couch and walk off somewhere. She looks behind her towards the two agents.

“Well, what are you two waiting for? Nights still young, and I’m up for one more game. Question is, are you?”

Eight looks towards the table where the machine currently sits. Then she sees Three walk past her to where Four is and takes her seat at the table. Chuckling to herself at how eager the Inklings are to play, she walks over and takes her seat.

After Four pushes a few buttons on the device, she looks over to the two agents seated around the table.

“I’m setting it up to make the shrinking last until the next morning. This is an all or nothing match. Are you two in?”

Eight glances towards Three, stone faced but determination in her eyes, and towards Four looking lax, but ready to go. Eight steels herself for the game ahead, and then looks at Four.

“Hit me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Now because it occurred to me that some people might/can't really convert numbers well, I added what the height conversions from cm to ft (plus one variant in inches) would be, just to maybe give people an idea if how small they were getting.
> 
> Eight: 200 cm=6'5 ft starting off, 180 cm=5'9 ft, 160 cm=5'2 ft, and 100 cm=3'2 ft for final height.
> 
> Three: 183 cm=6'0 ft starting off, while not numbered 165 cm=5'4 ft, 37 cm=1'2 ft, and 18 cm='5 ft or just 7 inches for her final height.
> 
> Four: 176 cm=5'7 ft starting off, 158 cm=5'1 ft, and 70 cm=2'2 ft for final height.
> 
> So yeah! Hope this helps and you didn't just kill the momentum for yourself by opening another tab to do the math.


End file.
